Scene of the Crime: Another murder 'over East'

Meishelle Archie, in pink, is consoled at the scene where her brother Drequan Archie was shot and killed near Clyde Avenue and 79th Street.

Scene of the Crime: Another murder 'over East'

Sister watches over slain brother in the dying light

Story by Peter Nickeas | Photos by John J. Kim

Meishelle Archie's eyes welled up as she stared at her dead brother Drequan through the black wrought iron fence. She had been crying earlier and the tears left faint traces on her face.

It hadn't been easy to get a good look at her 20-year-old brother. A police SUV pulled back and forth, trying to block the view, but it left a gap a few feet wide. Archie stood across the street and watched.

"Where homie at?" someone inside a car asked Archie as he pulled up.

"He gone,” she said.

She tucked her hands into her pink jacket and scrunched her shoulders as she tried to keep warm. Her voice shook. "He up in this gate right here. He out there."

Dusk settled over the crime scene and the street lights came on. It snowed for a few minutes, flurries and then nothing. The blue police lights got brighter as the sky darkened.

Drequan Archie was shot around 2:25 p.m. Wednesday in a lot behind the Tire Shop, a garage near Clyde Avenue and 79th Street. Archie fell face down, about five feet from an Audi SUV. A man with Archie, also 20, was shot in the leg and fled down the block.

A police officer guards the scene where fatal gunshot victim Drequan Archie lies on the ground behind a tire shop at the corner of 79th Street and South Clyde Avenue.

Scene of the Crime: Another murder 'over East'

'I see the gun poking out one of their pockets '

Witnesses tracked down by police said two men wearing ski masks and gloves approached Drequan Archie and the other man and opened fire. They shot up the side of the Audi and hit Archie in the head and back.

Archie tried to speak as he lay dying on the ground, the witnesses said.

Sawyer said he and a friend were in another car in the tire lot when he saw the gunmen walk up, covered head-to-toe.

“I see the gun poking out one of their pockets and stuff, they just get to shooting and (expletive). It was two shooting,” said Sawyer, 20. “We couldn't hear nothing, we already been pulled out when it happened. Came back around to see if they was OK, he was the only one laying down.

Arthur Lewis said he dropped to the floor of his kitchen when the shooting started.

“I’m hearing gunshots and I’m like, whoa, ducking behind the counter because I don’t want no bullets to hit me through the window,” the 22-year-old carpenter said. “I’m praying to God it’s not people I know.”

Police detectives and officers investigate the scene of a double shooting at the corner of 79th Street and South Clyde Avenue.

Scene of the Crime: Another murder 'over East'

'Zero-one-one-zero,' the officer radioed, giving the code for a homicide

Lewis said he has lived on the East Side -- "over East” -- his whole life.

After the gunfire ended, Lewis said he emerged from his brick bungalow a few doors from the 79th Street tire shop and found a woman standing in the driveway a few feet from where Archie had been shot, trying to describe what happened to a 911 operator.

“She was standing in front of the exit for the tire shop and she was saying that he wasn't breathing. She don't know his name, but she don't think he's breathing, can you please send somebody out here,” Lewis said.

Lewis ran back into the house, worried that the shooters would double back to make sure “he’s still dead.”

“And if they do that and find out they’ve taken him to the hospital, they’re gonna make future plans to get him later,” Lewis said. “It’s bad.”

At the scene, a dispatcher sought information from officers, asking for the names of the two victims and the nature of their wounds.

Archie was shot in the back area, police replied.

“Do you have a possible condition?” the dispatcher asked.

“Definitely, um, exited his um, chest area,” the officer replied.

“Exited his chest area. Did you say serious condition?”

“Zero-one-one-zero,” the officer said, giving the code for a homicide.

Bystanders peer at the body of Drequan Archie, 20, who was shot in a lot behind the Tire Shop, a garage near Clyde Avenue and 79th Street on Dec. 17, 2014.

Scene of the Crime: Another murder 'over East'

Neighbors took photos of the body and later posted them

Archie had been a student at Kishwaukee College in DeKalb County, according to his sister and public records.

Meishelle Archie wasn't sure what had happened. Police didn’t tell her and she only vaguely knew the man who survived with a leg wound.

"Is he a teenager?" someone shouted to her.

"He 20," she said, almost pleading. "His friend got shot but they say he in the hospital, he can't, he ain't talking right now.”

Her brother was a graduate of South Shore High School and lived a few miles south.

“His friend live on Merrill but they was changing the tire out the truck … (My mom) got a phone call.”

The daughter and mother embraced on 79th Street, both crying, before Meishelle went to the side where she could see the body.

“He on the ground. He on the ground. He was in (the other man’s) truck. They just got the car out the pound,” she said.

Neighbors lined up along the alley to look at the body. Some peered through cracks in a plank fence behind the shop. Others put their phones above the fence to get pictures that were later posted on social media.

Police attributed the shooting to an ongoing gang conflict, though Meishelle said her brother didn’t gangbang.

“He was in the car with somebody, I don't know who he was with. I don't even really know him, I only seen him four times,” she said.

Relatives of a fatal gunshot victim Drequan Archie grieve at the corner of 79th Street and South Clyde Avenue on Dec. 17, 2014.

Scene of the Crime: Another murder 'over East'

'No running from this. This is everywhere. This is everywhere'

The sight was jarring for 25-year-old Kendra Taylor, who happened to be on a bus that was stopped by the police tape. In 1995, her older brother was gunned down maybe 50 feet from where Archie died.

“This East Side is just crazy,” Taylor said. “This person is just laying here, just dead. It’s so crazy, it’s heartbreaking.”

She spoke with some relief. Her aunt wasn’t answering her phone and she saw the victim's dreads and worried it could have been her.

She talked of leaving the neighborhood, but they have lived their whole lives here.

She feels like she'll never escape the violence. Police chased calls of shots fired elsewhere in the neighborhood while they were responding to the tire shop and handled three other shootings between 75th Street and 89th Street later in the night.

“I really would like to (leave) but you’re living in a world where you can’t, it aint' no running from this,” Taylor said. “This is everywhere. This is everywhere.”